Giants hire former Eagles assistant Pat Shurmur to be head coach

Giants hire former Eagles assistant Pat Shurmur to be head coach

Former Eagles assistant Pat Shurmur, who spent the last season and a half as the offensive coordinator for the Vikings, was named the head coach of the New York Giants on Monday. Rumors of the hiring surfaced the week before the Vikings were blown out by the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game, but a deal could not be finalized until Minnesota was eliminated from the playoffs.

Shurmur, who turns 53 in April, has a long coaching resume. The nephew of defensive genius Fritz Shurmur, he began his career coaching tight ends at Michigan State from 1990-1997 before going to Stanford to coach the offensive line in 1998.

Andy Reid hired Shurmur in 2000 to coach the Eagles’ tight ends and offensive line. He became the team’s quarterbacks coach in 2002. Shurmur stayed in that capacity until early 2009, when he was hired by another former Eagles assistant, Steve Spagnuolo, to be the Rams offensive coordinator.

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In St. Louis, Shurmur built a relationship with rookie quarterback Sam Bradford. When Spagnuolo was fired as head coach after the 2010 season, the Rams tried to retain Shurmur as offensive coordinator to give Bradford some continuity. An offer to become head coach of the Cleveland Browns ultimately forced the Shurmur to leave.

While in Cleveland, Shurmur worked with Andy Reid’s mentor Mike Holmgren, who was the Browns team president, as well as former Eagles executive Tom Heckert Jr., who was the team’s general manager. The Browns won just nine games over Shurmur’s two-year tenure, and all three men were let go at the end of 2012.

In 2013, Shurmur returned to the Eagles as Chip Kelly’s offensive coordinator. He provided NFL experience to Kelly’s staff as the coach adapted his spread offense to the pro game. Shurmur’s familiarity with Bradford played a role in the trade that sent Nick Foles to the Rams and brought Shurmur’s former pupil to Philadelphia.

Both the Eagles and Giants set out on new courses following that season, with Philadelphia courting then-Giants offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo to be their next head coach before McAdoo was ultimately promoted to New York’s top job. McAdoo, however, failed miserably in his second season, leaving the Giants looking for answers once again this offseason.

In 2016, Shurmur wound up as the tight ends coach in Minnesota, where he’s again rumored to have influenced the team’s decision to give the Eagles a first-round pick for Bradford. He took over as the Vikings offensive coordinator after Norv Turner resigned in the middle of the 2015 season.

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Shurmur helped the Vikings make their unlikely 2016 run and will now attempt to help New York rebuild an offense that finished 31st in scoring in 2017. Shurmur will likely retain Spagnuolo as his defensive coordinator in another show of how the NFL coaching fraternity rarely ventures outside of its inner circle.

Shurmur is a well-respected yet unheralded coach. While the Giants may not have made the biggest splash with his hire, Eagles fans should understand how an overlooked coaching candidate, like their own Doug Pederson, can turn a franchise around in a hurry.